Monday, December 28, 2015

After
7 months of silence, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS's secretive leader has
released an audio recording on social media to bolster his followers
following several weeks of setbacks.

ISIS is on the defensive, and even in a state of withdrawal in
many areas. The group has lost as much as 40% of it's territory in Iraq
and
Syria, including the important Iraqi city of Ramadi just this
week.

The speech is clearly an attempt to boost spirits by focusing on
the one country that seems to ignite deep passion in the spirits of
every Muslim - Israel.

Baghdadi pledged the Islamic state would soon be in Palestine to
establish Islamic rule, saying “The Jews thought we forgot Palestine and
that they had distracted us from it. Not at all, Jews. We did not
forget Palestine for a moment. With the help of Allah, we will not
forget it… The pioneers of the jihadist fighters will surround you on a
day that you think is distant and we know is close. We are getting
closer every day.”

Using Israel as part of a rallying cry is a shift in strategy that
may be due to criticism al-Baghadi has received in the Arab world for
focusing too much on fellow Muslims and not enough on
the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

In 2014 ISIS responded to questions online about why it was not
fighting Israel instead of Muslims by saying the following,

“We haven’t given orders to kill the Israelis and the Jews. The
war against the nearer enemy, those who rebel against the faith, is more
important. Allah commands us in the Koran to fight the hypocrites,
because they are much more dangerous than those who are fundamentally
heretics.”

As proof, the organization cited the first caliph, Abu Bakr, who
began by fighting those who rebelled against the faith, as well as
Saladin, who fought the Shi’ites in Egypt before conquering Jerusalem.

Directly in the crosshairs of those it considers to be apostates
are the Saudi and Jordanian Kings. Saudi Arabia was
directly mentioned in the recording with al-Baghadi encouraging
citizens to, “rise up against the apostate tyrants, and avenge your
people in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.”

He also mocked the new 34 nation anti-ISIS coalition that Saudi
Arabia recently announced and accused Saudi rulers of launching an air
campaign against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen only to please the West.

“They announced lately a coalition… falsely called ‘Islamic,’ and
announced its goal is to fight the caliphate. If this coalition were
Islamic, it would have announced victory and aid to the people of
Syria,” he said.

After Saudi Arabia and Jordan, ISIS has scores to settle with the Prime Minister of Iraq, the
President of Egypt and even the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood before it finally gets to Israel.

However make no mistake - Israel is viewed as the ultimate prize and will always be in the crosshairs of any
Islamic leader looking to establish creditably in the Muslim world.

Israel's military however, poses a significant military threat to
ISIS. According to Jürgen Todenhöfer, a former member of the German
Parliament and the only Western journalist whom the terror group has
allowed to be embedded into it's camps, “The only country ISIS fears is
Israel. They told me they know the Israeli army is too strong for them.”

ISIS has fought a back and forth battle with other rebel groups to
maintain a
presence near Israel's Golan Heights. Such a presence gives it
more credibility when it makes threats regarding Israel as it could
easily launch missiles, set
landmines or even infiltrate Israeli territory from this area.

However, ISIS also knows that if it crosses Israel's red lines
then Israel would respond with overwhelming force in an effort to
maintain a rigorous deterrent to any future attacks.

Israel is taking no chances in waiting for ISIS to act on such threats and
according to Debka Intelligence has sped up it's timetable of deploying a new Commando Brigade by two months.

Debka Intelligence details the 89th Commando Brigade as composed
of four elite battalions that specialize in hitting the enemy in his
back yard or at home:

Duvdevan - specializes in operating amidst an Arab population
under deep cover for locating and arresting terror suspects.

Egoz - is a special kind of infantry battalion, whose commandos
operate solo or in very small teams behind enemy lines, especially
across the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

Maglan - is skilled in the use of weaponry designed for precision
operations against high quality enemy targets. These elite fighters go
deep inside enemy territory to gather intelligence and use their
specialized technology, exclusive for the use of this unit, for
devastating assaults.

Rimon - members are desert fighters who gained their experience
in the terrain of the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Their experience as back-up
for operations against drug smugglers is invaluable for urban combat in
civilian environments.

Time will tell if the latest propaganda from ISIS means they are
willing to take on Israel anytime soon, however the last thing ISIS
needs right now is such a formidable foe added to it's growing list of
nations prepared to engage the terrorist group.

President Obama is coming under fire from a respected terrorism
expert after Obama said the public needs to keep in mind that while ISIS
can kill Americans, it cannot bring down the nation.
In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep conducted
before Obama left for his vacation in Hawaii, Obama said the U.S. needs
to remain vigilant to stop ISIS-inspired attacks on its own soil, but
he also urged people to take a larger view.
"It's also important for us to keep things in perspective. This is
not an organization that can destroy the United States. This is not a
huge industrial power that can pose great risks to us institutionally or
in a systematic way. But they can hurt us, and they can hurt our people
and our families, so I understand why people are worried," said Obama,
who says the most important thing we can do is not change "who we are."
Erick Stakelbeck is a terrorism analyst for the Christian
Broadcasting Network and author of "ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery
and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam." He said Obama's implication
is troubling.
"He fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the threat. He does
not understand terrorism, especially of the Islamic variety. He doesn't
get it," Stakelbeck said. "The Islamic terror threat has already changed
our way of life. If you don't believe me, just go to an airport."
And while Obama may be right that ISIS cannot topple the U.S. government, Stakelbeck said it could do a whole lot of damage.
"If ISIS or another Islamic terror group gets their hands on a
weapon of mass destruction, which they are working diligently to
acquire, they might not be able to take down the whole country, but they
can take out New York, Washington, Chicago (or) L.A. That's not
alarmism. That's not fear tactics. That's a fact," Stakelbeck said.
In the same NPR interview, Obama also chided the media for what he
suggested was excessive coverage of ISIS in the wake of the attacks in
Paris and San Bernardino.
"ISIL combines viciousness with very savvy media operations," Obama
said in the interview. "As a consequence, if you've been watching
television for the past month, all you've been seeing, all you've been
hearing about, is these guys with masks or black flags who are
potentially coming to get you."
Stakelbeck said the concern among Americans is not stemming from too
much reporting but from what Obama's own subordinates are admitting.
"The FBI director is saying that ISIS has a network of supporters
and sympathizers in every state in the union," said Stakelbeck, noting
FBI Director James Comey admitted the government is watching some 1,000
possible threats throughout all 50 states.
"Then you have the House Homeland Security Committee that back in
September released a report saying 250 U.S. citizens have left their
comfortable homes here, traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS, and
dozens of them have already returned," Stakelbeck said. "These are
government officials saying it. It's not just cable news saying it."Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Erick Stakelbeck:
One of the great frustrations for Obama and politicians of all
stripes is the absence of a strategy to identify individuals or small
groups who wish to kill Americans, much like Syed Farook and Tashfeen
Malik in San Bernardino.
Stakelbeck said winning this fight starts with knowing who America's enemy.
"Let's identify the ideology," he said. "Terrorism is only a tactic.
It is driven by an ideology. It is Islamic jihadist ideology. President
Obama refuses to admit or acknowledge that ideology exists. But if you
name it and start to battle back against that ideology, at least you
have a fighting chance."
Obama and others reluctant to name the enemy as radical Islamists
say such rhetoric does more harm than good because it paints all of
Islam with the terrorist brush and could alienate the people most likely
to help root out the enemy. Stakelbeck said Obama is way off base.
"It's intellectually dishonest, in my view," he said. "He knows when
people say radical Islam jihadist, they aren't talking about all
Muslims. Obviously, every Muslim isn't a terrorist. We know that, and he
knows that. It's a straw man when he says it to quiet his critics."
Moreover, Stakelbeck said there should be no controversy over the terminology among peaceful Muslims.
"If you are truly a moderate, peace-loving Muslim who wants no part
of jihad and wants no part of Shariah, you should have no problem at all
with the term 'radical Islam,'" he said. "If that does not apply to
you, why would you have a problem with it? If you are a truly moderate
Muslim, you should be outraged by what ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida
and all the rest are doing."
He said that's an especially important point, given the rise in sympathy for radical Islam.
"We have to acknowledge there is a significant and growing strain of
the Muslim world that, yes, does support ISIS and subscribe to that
worldview," said Stakelbeck, who added the approach to defeating Soviet
communism ought to be dusted off for this fight.
"Think back to the Cold War. Think to the Solidarity Movement in
Poland, Radio Free Europe, where we had a concerted effort by the U.S.
government to battle against communist ideology and prove that it's
bankrupt. We need the same kind of all-hands-on-deck effort today
against Islamist ideology, a full-court press to discredit it and
neutralize it," said Stakelbeck, who noted that discrediting can also
take on a military dimension.
"Another thing that would help to discredit is to destroy this
mini-caliphate that ISIS has declared in Iraq and Syria," he said. "If
you do that, you hopefully demoralize the global movement and put a dent
in that ideology."
Beyond properly identifying the threat, Stakelbeck said there are
some other dimensions to reducing the threat here at home, starting with
knowing who might be whipping up jihadist motivations on American soil.
"Many mosques in the United States have ties to the global Muslim
Brotherhood movement and subscribe to that ideology," he said. "That's a
dangerous thing. If we have mosques in our country where there's
radical preaching and they're turning out young jihadis, we should shut
those radical mosques down without a doubt, just as France did last
month."
Finally, he would also temporarily pull up the drawbridge to the
United States and halt immigration from nations infested with radicals.
"I believe right now we need a timeout on immigration from countries
like Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq," he said. "I think that's just
common sense until we can get this thing under some kind of handle."

In
2015, the fracking outfits that dot America’s oil-rich plains threw
everything they had at $50-a-barrel crude. To cope with the 50 percent
price plunge, they laid off thousands of roughnecks, focused their rigs
on the biggest gushers only and used cutting-edge technology to squeeze
all the oil they could out of every well.QuickTakeFracking in Europe
Those
efforts, to the surprise of many observers, largely succeeded. As of
this month, U.S. oil output remained within 4 percent of a 43-year high.
The problem? Oil’s no longer at $50. It now trades near $35.
For
an industry that already was pushing its cost-cutting efforts to the
limits, the new declines are a devastating blow. These drillers are “not
set up to survive oil in the $30s,” said R.T. Dukes, a senior upstream
analyst for Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Houston.
The Energy Information Administration now predicts that companies operating in U.S. shale formations will cut production
by a record 570,000 barrels a day in 2016. That’s precisely the kind of
capitulation that OPEC is seeking as it floods the world with oil,
depressing prices and pressuring the world’s high-cost producers. It’s a
high-risk strategy, one whose success will ultimately hinge on whether
shale drillers drop out before the financial pain within OPEC nations
themselves becomes too great.

Drillers
including Samson Resources Corp. and Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. have
already filed for bankruptcy. About $99 billion in face value of
high-yield energy bonds are trading at distressed prices, according to
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Spencer Cutter. The BofA Merrill Lynch
U.S. High Yield Energy Index has given up almost all of its
outperformance since 2001, with the yield reaching its highest level
relative to the broader market in at least 10 years.
“You
are going to see a pickup in bankruptcy filings, a pickup in distressed
asset sales and a pickup in distressed debt exchanges,” said Jeff
Jones, managing director at Blackhill Partners, a Dallas-based
investment banking firm. “And $35 oil will clearly accelerate the
distress.”

Shale Rock

To understand why production is
about to collapse, we have to go back to how it came about. Geologists
have long known about shale. It’s what they called the source rock: Oil
and gas leached out of the shale into the porous dirt around it that
drillers could easily pump from. The shale itself was so impermeable
that wells would go dry almost immediately.
A wildcatter named
George Mitchell solved the problem by using directional bores to carve a
long horizontal hole through the shale layer, and then blasting that
tunnel with high-pressure bursts of water, chemicals and sand to create
millions of tiny fissures through which oil and gas could escape. It
worked, but was too expensive to implement on a wide scale.
Oil
prices rose as rapid global economic growth in the early 2000s boosted
energy demand, making shale profitable to drill. Output leaped more than
60 percent from the end of 2010.
The production burst came just
as growth slowed from its breakneck pace. As supply overwhelmed demand,
prices fell from the $100s to the $70s and then, after the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to keep pumping at near-record
levels, into the $30s.
“Shale is disruptive,” said Dukes. “It
brought on big volumes in a short period and eclipsed demand growth, and
the oil market began to look worse and worse.”

Spending Cuts

A
return to cheaper oil was thought to be disastrous for shale, but
companies figured out how to increase productivity and lower costs.
Producers
slashed spending, idling more than 60 percent of the rigs in the U.S.
They drilled and fracked faster, meaning fewer rigs and workers could
make the same number of wells. They focused on their best areas and used
more sand and water in the fracking process so each well gushed with
more crude. By April, when the rig count had fallen in half, output was
still rising.
All that effort did was push prices lower and
expectations for a price recovery further out into the future. Now shale
companies face a grim future, having played most of their best cards.
“There
is limited scope for further production cost reductions,” Mike Wittner,
head of oil-market research for Societe Generale, said in a note to
clients. “While technological and efficiency improvements may continue
gradually, oil company renegotiations with contractors are essentially
done, and so is the rapid shift to focus only on core areas.”
Shale
drillers aren’t the only ones hurting. OPEC’s strategy is causing pain
for its members. Saudi Arabia is said to be considering selling stakes
in state-owned companies to help stem a budget deficit that reached 20
percent of its economy. Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said
the industry is “at the door of a catastrophe” if crude production
outstrips storage capacity.

Supply Glut

Even a plunge in
U.S. output may not be enough to drain a global supply glut that has
almost 3 billion barrels of oil and products like gasoline in developed
countries’ storage tanks, according to the International Energy Agency.
The world will likely be oversupplied by about 1 million barrels a day
through the first half of next year before balancing, Jefferies LLC
analysts including Jason Gammel said in a Dec. 18 research note.
“Most
companies have gone into shrinkage mode, saying their goal is to stay
flat and make it through this market,” Raoul LeBlanc, an analyst with
IHS Inc. in Houston, said. “The current price is unsustainable.
Unfortunately, we have to sustain it for a while longer.”

In a speech at Tuskegee University, an institute of higher learning
in which white people are “not allowed on the bus,” First Domestic
Partner Michelle Obama gave the school’s commencement address with
instructions to the future agitators of America to – what else? Go forth
and agitate.According to JewsNews her mission is an extension of that of Hussein Obama, to foment unrest and destabilize America.

Her message was clear, “whatever is wrong in your life is whitey’s fault, and whitey owes you.”

She described the daily persecution inflicted upon her fellow victims
at the hands of the plantation owner class as including police
discrimination, the “nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or
pulled over for absolutely no reason.”The report
showed that vilifying the police is a job for the whole family at the
Obama house. Simply because they’re not her type of Americans. They’re
much too productive, too committed to the Constitution and of too strong
a moral character for the Mooch and company. Give her some foul-mouthed
parasitic anarchist street rats any day.

Never one to be accused of unifying the American people
with a message of common purpose and shared ideals, the divisive Ms.
Obama said, “I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an
excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. Not an excuse. They are
not an excuse to lose hope. To succumb to feelings of despair and anger
only means that in the end, we lose.”

She didn’t mean the American people or our nation lose. She’s talking
exclusively to black Americans and choosing sides, aligning herself
with them in the conflict that she, her husband and their operatives are
orchestrating against

In
the wake of a series of humiliating cyberattacks, the imperative in
Congress and the White House to do something — anything — in the name of
improving cybersecurity was powerful.
But only the most cynical observers thought the results would be this bad.
The legislation the House passed on Friday morning is a thinly
disguised surveillance bill that would give companies pathways they
don’t need to share user data related to cyberthreats with the
government — while allowing the government to use that information for
any purpose, with almost no privacy protections.
Because Speaker of the House Paul Ryan slipped the provision into the
massive government omnibus spending bill that had to pass — or else the
entire government would have shut down — it was doomed to become
law. (This post has been updated to reflect the vote, which was 316 to 113.)
The text of the bill — now known as the Cybersecurity Act of 2015,
formerly known as CISA — wasn’t released until shortly after midnight
Wednesday morning, giving members of Congress essentially no time to do
anything about it.
The bill removes a restriction on direct information sharing with the
National Security Agency and the Pentagon; eliminates a restriction on
the government’s use of that information for surveillance activities;
allows law enforcement to use the information to prosecute any and all
crimes; and leaves it up to the individual agencies to scrub personally
identifying information when they feel like it.
“If someone hacks a health insurance company like Blue Cross/Blue
Shield, and they get scared and hand over all the medical records that
were exposed in the hack, the NSA could share those records with the
DEA, who could use them in ongoing investigations that have nothing to
do with cybersecurity or terrorism,” wrote Evan Greer, campaign director
for Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group.
The House Homeland Security Committee chaired by Rep. McCaul,
R-Texas, had proposed a series of privacy protections from a previous
House version of the cyber bill, but they were stricken from the new
version that emerged from the Speaker’s office.
“The bill is all the worst parts” of the different cybersecurity
bills negotiated in recent months, Nathan White, senior legislative
manager for Access Now, told The Intercept. “It was negotiated in secret. … It’s a sneaky process they’ve used.”
Because of the last-minute timing, members of Congress “are not even
going to know what they’re passing,” White said. “We don’t have time to
get an informed vote, they’re pulling a fast one on the Senate.”
And the White House is reportedly on board. According to a leaked document
published by Dustin Volz of Reuters, titled “Summary administration
priorities for CISA”, the White House’s priorities line up with the new
version of the bill — despite the fact that the administration
threatened a veto over very similar legislation in 2013.According to
several technologists, information sharing isn’t a real solution to
preventing cyberattacks. The best defense is better cyber hygiene. “When
you’ve got an epidemic, the answer is you should be washing your hands
every time you use the bathroom. It’s just not a sexy thing to say,” Lee
Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told
The Intercept last January following President Obama’s State of the Union address, which focused heavily on cybersecurity.
Some opposition to the new bill has emerged among digital
rights-supporting lawmakers and organizations, both Democratic and
Republican. But they face off against the immensely powerful
intelligence committees in the House and the Senate, congressional
leadership, and the White House.
“Members of Congress are intentionally kept in dark so we don’t have
time to rally opposition to particular measures,” Libertarian-leaning
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., wrote on Twitter.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., warned that the bill would “accomplish
little more than increased unwarranted surveillance of U.S. persons,
sharing private information with prosecutors and feeding the NSA
dragnet.”
“This ‘cybersecurity’ bill was a bad bill when it passed the Senate
and it is an even worse bill today,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
“Americans deserve policies that protect both their security and their
liberty. This bill fails on both counts. Cybersecurity experts say
CISA will do little to prevent major hacks and privacy advocates know
that this bill lacks real, meaningful privacy protections,” Wyden wrote
in a press release.
Overall, there was never much hope among the conservative groups. “We
certainly would have liked more time to bring this issue to the
attention of libertarians and conservatives. Unfortunately, the way the
final bill was conferenced — keeping Chairman McCaul out of any
substantive discussions and disregarding many of his concerns around the
reconciliation process — moved it quicker than we anticipated,” wrote
Ryan Hagemann of the Niskanen Center in an email to The Intercept.

Winter Vomiting Virus Explodes in California

California health officials announced this week an excessive
uptick in the number of “winter vomiting disease” or norovirus cases
from prior years.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed
that 32 outbreaks of the virus in the past three months have lead to
likely hundreds of sicknesses across the state. The volume of outbreaks
“far exceed the number reported at this time in 2014.”
The CDPH describes
norovirus as, “a highly contagious virus that causes gastroenteritis,
an illness that usually involves vomiting and diarrhea.” The sickness is
credited as the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the U.S. Yearly
cases result in between 570 and 800 deaths in the country according to
the health agency. The average number of cases per year sits around 20
million.
Spread of the virus occurs rapidly with crowded environments most
vulnerable. Examples to watch out for included, “hospitals, nursing
homes, daycare centers, schools, cruise ships and food service settings
like restaurants.”
Those that have been sick can still spread the virus two weeks after recovering.
“One of the most important things you can do to avoid norovirus and
other illnesses this holiday season is to wash your hands frequently
with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds,” Dr. Smith said.
“This is especially important after using the bathroom, changing
diapers, and before preparing or eating food. Hand sanitizers are not
effective against norovirus.”Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana

As we move into 2016 and the last year of the disastrous Obama presidency, many of us have taken some comfort in three words. One. More. Year.

That said, we have wary eyes watching to see how much additional
damage the president will inflict in his waning months. And as the
president prepares for his final state of the union (the word “final”
does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) his message — summed up in
eight words — is chilling, if not exactly surprising.‘I’ll squeeze every ounce of change I can’…
As The Weekly Standard reports:

Barack Obama is preparing for his final State of the Union
Address, which he’ll deliver January 12. And the president is not
looking to slow down as the end of his presidency nears.“I’ve got 12 months left to squeeze every ounce of change I can
while I’m still in office. And that’s what I intend to do,” Obama writes
in an email to supporters.

We’ve done a lot of remarkable things together
this year, and it’s because of committed citizens like you that this
country keeps moving forward. You keep proving the cynics wrong.

On January 12, I’ll be giving my last State of
the Union address. I want you to watch, and say you’re ready to keep up
the fight in 2016 — because your voice matters just as much as mine
does.

OFA is one of the groups getting people fired
up to take action in 2016. Say you’ll watch the State of the Union, and
commit to taking action next year.

As we’ve noted time and again on these pages, President Obama has
indeed made good on his promise to fundamentally transform America. Who
can remember when we’ve been more divided amongst ourselves, less
respected in the world — and our fundamental constitutional freedoms
more under attack from within? I’m sure I don’t need to list all of this
president’s many accomplishments to remind anyone here of the damage
that’s been done in just seven years.
Americans are angry after seven years of this presidency. So,
naturally, what is someone like President Obama to do? Double down on
his own ideological agenda, of course. That’s the way this emperor
rolls.
What is even more distressing is seeing the GOP Congress failing to
play its role in stopping this overreaching president. Yes, it’s no
wonder Americans are angry with both Obama and the Republican
establishment.
It feels sometimes like all we can do is hold on tight and repeat our
mantra: One. More. Year. And be dang sure each and every one of us does
all that we can to ensure we don’t end up with a third term of this
fundamental transformation — in the form of the wrong person succeeding
Obama in the White House. Each and every one of us.
[Note: This article was written by Michelle Jesse, Associate Editor]

NATO Expansion: Lessons Not Learned

Failure to Communicate
Recently, NATO extended an offer of membership to Montenegro. The
announcement was couched in the usual tagline of offering “assurance” to
Western Balkan states concerned with possible security issues (Russian
assertiveness) and “reassurance” to current NATO members in the
neighborhood. With the utmost respect to Montenegrins and other newer
NATO entrants, it seems that they are not expected to reciprocate and
offer assurance or reassurance to NATO in turn, which really means the
United States. Yet, reciprocity is one of the hallmarks of any
successful alliance. The idea that the U.S. considers Montenegro an ally
worth risking further deterioration of US-Russian relations in the wake
of Ukraine, Syria, the Sinai air disaster, the Paris bombings, and
recent Turkish actions is quite idiotic.
Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 should have taught NATO the
possible dangers of over-extension. The latter episode in particular
should have been quite instructive (to NATO as well as the EU) as to the
need for dialogue between major powers before actions to be taken which
might be perceived as infringing upon the security interests of other
involved parties. Relentless expansion of one’s own sphere of influence
while denying a corresponding sphere of influence and concomitant
security interests to one’s counterpart reeks of hubris, stupidity, and
miscalculation, the usual tragic precursors to war in the past.

Security Architecture and Infrastructure Crumbling
Two hundred years ago at the Congress of Vienna,
the major powers of the day agreed to form an equilibrium of sorts
which was intended to reduce the chance of a major European war
re-occurring. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, Austria, Prussia,
Russia, Great Britain, and France came to an understanding which in
essence stated that if any one of the powers took actions which
infringed upon the security interests of another state, it would
potentially face consequences from the remaining powers as well. With
the exception of the Crimean War, this model served as the basis for
peace on the European continent for almost a hundred years, until the
outbreak of World War I. Following the Treaty of Versailles, there were
attempts to replicate the Congress of Vienna model with the formation of
the League of Nations. The League ultimately proved unsustainable
because of the non-participation of the United States.
The model was replicated once more in the wake of World War II with
the creation of the United Nations’ Security Council, whose permanent
members also numbered five, akin to the original Congress. In his
infamous New York Times op-ed piece,
President Putin warned explicitly that the Security Council was in
danger of becoming obsolete if certain members, namely the U.S., kept
taking actions which violated its norms. Members of the Security Council
have the not unrealistic expectation that their interests will be taken
into account. If not, the entire international security architecture
becomes imminently more unstable.

Wisdom and Alternatives Needed

In addition to hurting US-Russia relations and ultimately undermining
the US position in the international community vis-a-vis the United
Nations, constant NATO expansion lends credence to the argument for
alternative security structures. One such structure is China’s
Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia
(CICA). Among CICA’s tenets is the belief that alliances reflect a Cold
War mentality, evident in the expansion to Montenegro and the populace’s
subsequent division as result of common Orthodox ties with Russia.
Another more fundamental CICA platform is that ultimate, “perfect”
security for one party cannot be obtained without inevitably diminishing
the security concerns of other parties.

Summarily, two post-World War II events are worthy of discussion
here. However militarily feasible (if at all), it was considered
politically infeasible to attack our ally, the Former Soviet Union,
following the defeat of Nazi Germany. This suggestion by General Patton,
in addition to other decisions taken, led to his eventual dismissal by
General Eisenhower. Shortly afterwards, during the Korean War, General
MacArthur talked about expanding the war to include China and actually
advanced to the Sino-Korean border, which provoked a response from
China, pushing the General’s troops toward the sea. MacArthur was
eventually relieved by President Truman. The combined suggestion from
the two popular generals was that there could be no ultimate security
for the United States while both the Former Soviet Union and Communist
China continued to exist. More wisdom and forethought in the likes of
Truman and Eisenhower is desperately needed now.

Earth May Spin Faster as Glaciers Melt

12/16/2015 09:32

Melting ice triggered by global warming may make Earth whirl faster
than before and could shift the axis on which the planet spins,
researchers say.
This could also affect sunset times, as the length of Earth's day
depends on the speed at which the planet rotates on its axis. Prior
research found the rate at which Earth spins has changed over time.
For instance, ancient Babylonian, Chinese, Arab and Greek astronomers
often recorded when eclipses occurred and where these phenomena were
seen. This knowledge, in combination with astronomical models that
calculate what the positions of the Earth, sun and moon were on any
given date and time, can help reveal how fast Earth must have been
spinning. To do so, researchers calculate the speed necessary for the
planet to face the sun and moon in ways that allowed those astronomers
to observe the eclipses. [50 Amazing Facts About Earth]
In general, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on Earth is
relentlessly slowing the planet's rate of spin. However, in the short
term, a variety of different factors can also speed up and slow down how
fast Earth whirls.
Previous research has found that melting glaciers triggered by global
warming helped cause a significant amount of global sea-level rise in
the 20th century. In theory, rising sea levels — once estimated to be
climbing at a rate of about 0.06 to 0.08 inches (1.5 to 2 millimeters)
per year — should also have slightly shifted Earth's axis and increased
the rate at which the planet spins.
When polar ice caps melt, they remove weight off underlying rock,
which then rebounds upward. This makes the poles less flat and the
planet more round overall. This should in turn cause Earth to tilt a bit
and spin more quickly.
However, previous research mysteriously could not find evidence that
melting glaciers were triggering a shift in either Earth's rotation or
axis that was as great as predicted. This problem is known as "Munk's
enigma," after oceanographer Walter Munk at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, California, who first noted the mystery, in
2002.
Now, in a new study, researchers may have solved this enigma and
shown that rising sea levels are indeed affecting Earth's spin and axis.
"The rise of sea level and the melting of glaciers during the 20th
century is confirmed not only by some of the most dramatic changes in
the Earth system — for example, catastrophic flooding events, droughts
[and] heat waves — but also in some of the most subtle — incredibly
small changes in Earth's rotation rate," said study lead author Jerry X.
Mitrovica, a geophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
First, the scientists noted that recent studies suggested
20th-century glacial melting was about 30 percent less severe than Munk
assumed. This should significantly reduce the predicted amount of shift
in Earth's spin and axis.
Moreover, the research team's mathematical calculations and computer
simulations found that prior research relied on erroneous models of
Earth's internal structure. This meant previous studies did not
correctly account for how much glaciers would deform underlying rock and
influence Earth's spin.
Furthermore, interactions between Earth's rocky mantle and the
planet's molten metal outer core should have helped slow the planet's
spin more than was previously thought.
Altogether, these adjustments helped the scientists find that ongoing
glacial melting and the resulting sea-level rise are affecting the
Earth in ways that match theoretical predictions, astronomical
observations, and geodetic or land-survey data.
"What we believe in regard to melting of glaciers in the 20th century
is completely consistent with changes in Earth's rotation [as] measured
by satellites and astronomical methods," Mitrovica told Live Science.
"This consistency was elusive for a few years, but now the enigma is
resolved.
"Human-induced climate change is of such pressing importance to
society that the responsibility on scientists to get things right is
enormous," Mitrovica said. "By resolving Munk's enigma, we further
strengthen the already-strong argument that we are impacting climate."
The scientists detailed their findings online today (Dec. 11) in the journal Science Advances. LiveScience

Will the 'Mark of the Beast' Play Music in Your Head?

12/16/2015 09:15

By 2040, author Stephen Witt envisions a world where people listen to
music via implanted SmartChips "invoked via spoken-word commands," the
Wall Street Journal reports in its article, "Is the Future of Music a
Chip in Your Brain?"
While the article by Witt, author of How Music Got Free, is
fictional, technologies to bring Witt's vision to fruition are now in
the works.
A recent article in The Washington Post revealed that scientists at
Caltech have developed an implantable chip that gave a tetraplegic man
the power to drink a beverage with a robot arm.
"This is just the beginning," Arianna Eunjung Cha wrote in the
article titled "Future potential of brain chip is limitless after man
controls robot arm with his thoughts."
"Researchers are working on all manner of silicon-based devices that
go inside the body and manipulate the body's signals to create motion.
They believe these chips will not only be able to help those with
paralysis one day—but also usher in a new era of robot adjuncts
controlled by someone's thoughts that will be able to perform all manner
of jobs from lifting dangerous objects to filing papers."
Last year, doctors performed an operation on a 22-year-old man to
insert a chip into his brain connected to a port and computer programmed
to decode messages from his brain.
This follows the increasing use of short-range radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.
"You can inject one under your skin, and no one will ever notice,"
wrote John Brandon in his foxnews.com article titled "Is there a
microchip implant in your future?" "Using short-range radio frequency
identification (RFID) signals, it can transmit your identity as you pass
through a security checkpoint or walk into a football stadium. It can
help you buy groceries at Wal-Mart. In a worst-case scenario—if you are
kidnapped in a foreign country, for example—it could save your life."
As these new technologies emerge, Bible prophecy experts are asking
whether these or others could one day transform into what the book of
Revelation calls the "Mark of the Beast"— a mark on the right hand or
forehead without which people won't be able to work, earn money or even
buy the necessities of life.
Evangelist Perry Stone, the best-selling author of many Bible
prophecy books, believes in a possible government plan of implanting
microchips into Americans' bodies for identification purposes by
2017-18.
TruNews' Rick Wiles says the REAL ID Act passed in 2005 could be the
initial step to use these new technologies. Jim Bakker, host of The Jim
Bakker Show, agrees, saying the identification laws are only in their
nascent stages.
"They can literally put an edict on it that you cannot buy food, you cannot buy anything," Bakker says. Charisma

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Weakening 10 Times Faster Now

12/16/2015 08:50

Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of
deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months,
according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite
array called Swarm.
The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field — which extends 370,000
miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface — have sprung up
over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas
like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard
the Swarm satellites — three separate satellites floating in tandem.
The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the
magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's
magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the
ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is
moving toward Siberia.
"Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not
a few thousand years," Floberghagen told Live Science. "They have
happened many times in the past."[50 Amazing Facts About Planet Earth]
Scientists already know that magnetic north shifts. Once every few
hundred thousand years the magnetic poles flip so that a compass would
point south instead of north. While changes in magnetic field strength
are part of this normal flipping cycle, data from Swarm have shown the
field is starting to weaken faster than in the past. Previously,
researchers estimated the field was weakening about 5 percent per
century, but the new data revealed the field is actually weakening at 5
percent per decade, or 10 times faster than thought. As such, rather
than the full flip occurring in about 2,000 years, as was predicted, the
new data suggest it could happen sooner.
Floberghagen hopes that more data from Swarm will shed light on why the field is weakening faster now.
Still, there is no evidence that a weakened magnetic field would
result in a doomsday for Earth. During past polarity flips there were no
mass extinctions or evidence of radiation damage. Researchers think
power grids and communication systems would be most at risk.
Earth's magnetic field acts like a giant invisible bubble that
shields the planet from the dangerous cosmic radiation spewing from the
sun in the form of solar winds. The field exists because Earth has a
giant ball of iron at its core surrounded by an outer layer of molten
metal. Changes in the core's temperature and Earth's rotation boil and
swirl the liquid metal around in the outer core, creating magnetic field
lines.
The movement of the molten metal is why some areas of the magnetic
field strengthen while others weaken, Florberghagen said. When the
boiling in one area of the outer core slows down, fewer currents of
charged particles are released, and the magnetic field over the surface
weakens.
"The flow of the liquid outer core almost pulls the magnetic field
around with it," Floberghagen said. "So, a field weakening over the
American continent would mean that the flow in the outer core below
America is slowing down."
The Swarm satellites not only pick up signals coming from the Earth's
magnetic field, but also from its core, mantle, crust and oceans.
Scientists at the ESA hope to use the data to make navigation systems
that rely on the magnetic field, such as aircraft instruments, more
accurate, improve earthquake predictions and pinpoint areas below the
planet's surface that are rich in natural resources. Scientists think
fluctuations in the magnetic field could help identify where continental
plates are shifting and help predict earthquakes.
These first results from Swarm were presented at the Third Swarm Science Meeting in Denmark on June 19.LiveScience

Bethlehem Rejects ‘Merry Christmas’ Sign

12/22/2015 21:57

The little town of Bethlehem, New York, has decided that there’s no
room at the intersection this Christmas season for a “Merry Christmas”
sign.
The town traditionally has Christmas and Hanukkah displays at an
intersection known as “Four Corners,” including a menorah and Christmas
tree.
But this year, officials rejected a sign that says “Merry Christmas” —
as well as a “Happy Hanukkah” sign — out of fear of violating the First
Amendment, according to Albany’s Times Union newspaper.
A local resident offered to contribute a “Merry Christmas” sign, as
she had done in the past, but a lawyer for the town told her that such a
sign would violate the separation of church and state.
Lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that
represents religious liberty cases, wrote a letter to the town that such
signs would not violate the Constitution.
“The irony is not lost on us that your Town’s name is Bethlehem,” ADF Legal Counsel Joseph La Rue wrote.
“No one should fear that saying ‘Merry Christmas’ on a sign like this
will violate the Constitution. It does not,” La Rue continued. “The
courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, have been clear that
the government can erect Christmas signs and displays, including even
Nativity scenes, without having to fear a constitutional violation.”
The local resident, Elena Marcelle, and ADF have asked the town to reconsider allowing the signs. Blaze

The Department of
Defense now authorizes the domestic deployment of US troops in “the
conduct of operations other than war” including law enforcement activities and the
quelling of “civil disturbances”: “Federal military commanders have the
authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior
authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local
authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily
in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil
disturbances…“

These developments –which
are currently the object of heated debate– are the result of more than
ten years of “repressive legislation” which increasingly points to the
“fusion of the police and military functions both within the US and
abroad”.

In a path breaking article published by Global Research in 2003, award winning author Frank Morales
shows how the post 911 “Patriot Act” which he describes as a
“repressive coordination” had set the stage for the militarization of
America, namely “a form of state terrorism directed against the American people and democracy itself.”

The
“domestic war on terrorism” hinges upon the Pentagon’s doctrine of
homeland defense. Mountains of repressive legislation are being enacted
in the name of internal security. So called “homeland security”,
originally set within the Pentagon’s “operations other than war”, is
actually a case in which the Pentagon has declared war on America.

Shaping
up as the new battleground, this proliferating military “doctrine”
seeks to justify new roles and missions for the Pentagon within America.
Vast “legal” authority and funds to spy on the dissenting public,
reconfigured as terrorist threats, is being lavished upon the defense,
intelligence and law enforcement “community.”

We bring to the attention of our readers this path-breaking analysis by Frank Morales

Michel Chossudovsky, December 25, 2015

The “PATRIOT Act” is a repressive
“coordination” of the entities of force and deception, the police,
intelligence and the military. It broadens, centralizes and combines the
surveillance, arrest and harassment capabilities of the police and
intelligence apparatus. Homeland defense is, in essence, a form of state
terrorism directed against the American people and democracy itself. It
is the Pentagon Inc. declaring war on America.

The “domestic war on terrorism” hinges
upon the Pentagon’s doctrine of homeland defense. Mountains of
repressive legislation are being enacted in the name of internal
security. So called “homeland security”, originally set within the
Pentagon’s “operations other than war”, is actually a case in which the
Pentagon has declared war on America. Shaping up as the new
battleground, this proliferating military “doctrine” seeks to justify
new roles and missions for the Pentagon within America. Vast “legal”
authority and funds to spy on the dissenting public, reconfigured as
terrorist threats, is being lavished upon the defense, intelligence and
law enforcement “community.”

All
this is taking place amidst an increasingly perfected “fusion” of the
police and military functions both within the US and abroad, where the
phenomena is referred to as “peacekeeping”, or the “policization of the
military”. Here in America, all distinction between the military and
police functions is about to be forever expunged with the looming repeal
of the Posse Comitatus Act. The latter, was passed after the Civil War
to rein in the military. It bars federal troops from doing police work
within United States borders, although strictly speaking, the Act refers
only to the Army and the Air Force, not to the Marines or the National
Guard in “state status.” According to the New York Times:

“the Bush administration has directed
lawyers in the Department of Justice and Defense to review the Posse
Comitatus Act of 1878 and any other laws that sharply restrict the
military’s ability to participate in domestic law enforcement.”

The Washington Post (7/21/02) put it a bit more starkly, stating that the Bush administration:

“has called on Congress to thoroughly review the law that
bans the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from participating in
arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other police-type activity on
US soil.”

In other words, the “New World Law and
Order” based on the repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act, requires a system
of domestic and global counterinsurgency led by the Pentagon.

The first requirement of this
counterinsurgency, which is directed at all forms of social dissent is
the “collection”, “retention” and “dissemination” of information,
information on anyone who resists, whether through violent means or
otherwise. Recall, that the protests in Seattle and numerous other
cities in recent years were more often than not classified within
official DoD and FEMA documents as “terrorist events”. The objective is
to centralize all intelligence gathering under one roof, the Department
of Homeland Security and to widely cast the net over all of us, making
certain that we all fall in line with the Pentagon Inc. agenda.

To this end the myriad modes of
intelligence gathering or “collection” have been beefed up: From CALEA
(Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) to Carnivore (e-mail
spying), from the NSA’s Echelon (global listening device), to spy
satellite imagery, from FBI “roving wiretaps”, to CIA access to grand
juries and secret FISA “foreign intelligence” courts, the means, legal
sanctions and technology of social control proliferate, are sanctioned,
are demanded by a paranoid public. Homeland security requires
manufactured insecurity. A bit of anthrax to keep em on their toes and
minding their p’s and q’s…

Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS)

Typical of the need for “tactical (on
the ground) intelligence” is the creation of TIPS or the Terrorism
Information and Prevention System. Set up in January 2002 by Ashcroft’s
Justice Department, TIPS is described as a “national system for
concerned workers to report suspicious activity”. In fact, TIPS is a
hotline to the National White Collar Crime Center, a Justice Department
organization that deals with “economic crime” and cyberattack. For a
little under a million bucks they plan to register all “suspicious,
publicly observable activity that could be related to terrorism” and
forward it to law enforcement and other agencies “opting to receive TIPS
information.” These agencies “would be responsible for determining how
to respond to the tips they receive.”

The “workers” that TIPS is willing to
offer its hotline service are those in the transportation, trucking,
shipping, maritime, and mass transit industries. The truckers, for their
part, are jumping in with both feet. The trucker magazine FleetOwner
recently noted (6/1/02) that:

“attempting to stay ahead of Federal regulators charged
with securing US transportation networks from terrorist attacks, the
American Trucking Assns. has readied a ‘Neighborhood Watch’ program for
the nation’s highways.”

The ATA’s “Anti-Terrorism Action Plan”,
geared to keeping the “wheels of commerce” rolling, envision a plan in
which “a potential 3 million professional truck drivers will be trained
to spot and report any suspicious activities that might have terrorism
or national security implications.” As if truckers don’t have enough on
their minds, although it might be wise for them to keep their eyes wide
open.

It seems that the Bush administration
concern for workers knows no bounds. According to the New York Times
(8/!4/02) President Bush wants to exempt all homeland security
coordinated agencies “from collective bargaining requirements if (he)
were to determine that our national security demands it.” Little known
to the public, the president is seeking not only to “exempt agency
employees from federal labor relations rules and prohibit them from
joining unions”, but he’s also prepared to force them to work, under the
conditions he chooses, if “national security demands it”. The
“flexibility” that Bush is calling for, a “fast moving homeland security
department unfettered by work rules and red tape” is sure to result in a
lot less “flexibility” on the part of workers who may soon be
confronted with a form of involuntary employment during “times of war”,
all set out in Department of Defense directives.

Financing Homeland Defense

TIPS, which is an integral part of the CitizenCorps/ FreedomCorps/ AmeriCorps
axis of patriotic, police loving do-gooders, is buttressed with funds
from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). In the
wake of 9/11, CNCS was fully integrated into “homeland defense efforts”.
In March 2002, the Corporation issued a “notice of availability of
funds to strengthen communities and organizations in using service and
volunteers to support homeland security.” With an emphasis on “public
safety” and “freeing up police time”, the grants offered under the
announcement “are to assist communities in getting involved in the war
against terrorism on the home front.” In the area of “public safety” the
grants “will help provide members to support police departments…in
tasks and other functions that can be performed by non-sworn officers.”
Now mind you, the volunteers “are not armed, nor can they make arrests,
but they carry out vital tasks including organizing neighborhood watch
groups…” They also “organize communities to identify and respond to
crime and disorder problems…”

In July 2002, Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge announced, while sitting in a Washington DC police station,
the first round of CNCS homeland security grants totaling $10.3 million,
an “initiative” that is to involve some 37,000 volunteers nationwide.
One recipient of a $484,000 Corporation grant, based in NYC, is the
Center for Court Innovation. Linked to the NYC Public Safety Corps, the
grant “will enhance homeland security by assisting criminal justice
officials (police, probation officers, judges) as they perform their
duties…(while) 40 full time AmeriCorps members will…free up police…to
address conditions of disorder that if left unchecked create a climate
where crime would flourish.”

In NYC, ground zero for the attack,
homeland defense equates to the same old thing, cracking down on
“disorder” (protest) and “quality of life crimes”, which is a racist
police code for arresting and jailing more poor people.

The euphemism of “homeland defense”,
codified within the halls of the Pentagon as early as the mid-1990′s,
long before 9/11, buttressed with various Presidential Decision
Directives and Executive Orders, includes, within the doctrinal rubric
of “operations other than war”, continual training to suppress dissent,
or as it is conveniently phrased, to put down “civil disturbance.” The
decades old “Garden Plot” operation, which is the Pentagon’s stand alone
“civil disturbance” plan, has become generalized in the “homeland
defense” concept and it’s focus on the “asymmetric threat”. With the
creation of the Department of Homeland Defense, Homeland Security
Council etc. the Bush administration is seeking to institutionalize it’s
“permanent war” against “terrorism”, dovetailed with it’s ongoing war
against dissent.

So while Garden Plot directives, geared
for domestic use, are exported to “peacekeeping” troops abroad,
“homeland defense” tightens the grip at home. The recent appointment of
General Ralph E. Eberhart and the creation of a Northern Command within
the Pentagon reflect the depth of commitment the elite have to
maintaining “full spectrum dominance” at home.

With “the PATRIOT Act” and other legal
monstrosities foisted upon the people, what emerges is a repressive
“coordination” (as the Nazis used to call it) of the entities of force
and deception, the police, intelligence and the military, in the
interests of a “permanent” counterinsurgency, by way of the
centralization and broadening of surveillance capabilities, arrest
capabilities, and harassment capabilities, which target anyone corporate
America doesn’t like. Homeland defense is, in essence, a form of state
terrorism directed against the American people and democracy itself. It
is the Pentagon Inc. declaring war on America.

Global Counterinsurgency

The “war on terrorism” is a global
counterinsurgency whose aim is to wipe out any and all resistance to US
global hegemony and corporate domination. Utilizing “operations other
than war” (OOTW), corporate America and it’s military are taking a more
direct, hands on approach to the needs and requirements of corporate
globalization. OOTW, with its host of new missions (e.g. peacekeeping
and civil disturbance operations), is based on a pre-emptive doctrine.
In this new war, which relies on both standard means of killing along
with so-called non-lethal weapons, so-called ” non-combatants” (i.e.
civilians) become the primary target. And in so doing, the military, via
its OOTW doctrine, is violating one of the sacred tenets of the
so-called “laws of war”, namely, that militaries not target civilian
populations. But after all, as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld noted in a
(12/12/01) statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, the “enemy”
“hides in caves abroad”, and more importantly, “among us here at home.”

Now, despite the fact that both the
Presidential and military directives target “non-United States citizens”
(as if that’s not bad enough), in June 2002, the Bush administration
jailed a New York City man of Puerto Rican descent, Jose Padilla – or as
he now calls himself – Abdullah al Muhajir, and is holding him in a
military brig in South Carolina. He has yet to be charged with any
crime. Like the hundreds of Muslim immigrants still being held in
detention since September 11, he is considered a “material witness” to
the investigation of the attack. And yet, rather than have him subject
to the discretion of Federal courts, he was handed over to the military
as an “enemy combatant” after Ashcroft and the Pentagon talked it over.
At that moment, Padilla was taken out of his New York prison cell and
transferred to a US Navy brig in South Carolina. His attorney, Donna
Newman of NYC was not informed of his transfer and has been denied
access to her client. Even the Washington Post, which has backed
virtually all of the repressive measures of the Bush administration
since September 11, wrote at the time of Padilla’s jailing that:

”the governments actions in this latest case cut against
basic elements of life under the rule of law” and that “if its
positions are correct, nothing would prevent the president – even in the
absence of a formal declaration of war – from designating any American
as an enemy combatant…If that’s the case, nobody’s constitutional rights
are safe.”

This “chilling legal precedent” is but
the tip of the iceberg of the complete subsuming of normal judicial
processes to the growing militarization of law enforcement and
jurisprudence.

“Homeland defense”, as we experience it
today, has been percolating in the bowels of the Pentagon and corporate
think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and
the Council on Foreign Relations, along with their Congressional
counterparts, for nearly a decade. What it required was an emergency
situation. The “homeland security” apparatus presently being constructed
is modeled roughly after the military’s “combatant command structure”
and is –in the wake of 9/11– set within the context of the “laws and
customs of war”, hence the introduction of military courts and the
shifting of jurisdictions for so-called “crimes associated with
terrorism”. The Northern Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base,
Colorado, whose job as of October 1st is to patrol America, will head up
this homeland defense “command structure”.

Concurrent with the round-up of over a
thousand people following the September 11 attack, many of whom have
been held in solitary confinement, with no charges being filed,
President Bush signed in November 2991 order, establishing military
“tribunals” for those non-citizens accused, anywhere, of “terrorist
related crimes”. According to the National Legal Aid & Defender
Association, the order violates the constitutional separation of powers:

”[It] has not been authorized by the Congress and is
outside the President’s constitutional powers”… the order strips away a
variety of checks and balances on governmental power and the reliability
and integrity of criminal judgments… [T]he order undermines the rule of
law worldwide, and invites reciprocal treatment of US nationals by
hostile nations utilizing secret trials, a single entity as prosecutor,
judge and jury, no judicial review and summary executions.”

Department of Defense Military
Commission Order No.1, issued March 21, 2002, is concerned with
“procedures for trials by military commissions of certain non-United
States citizens in the War Against Terrorism.” The “commissions”,
according to the order, “shall have jurisdiction over violations of the
laws of war and all other offenses triable by military commission.”
Overseen by a “military officer” who will “admit or exclude evidence at
trial”, the “prosecutor” would be a “special trial counsel of the
Department of Justice.” On the defense side, well, one could opt to go
with the DoD’s version of the public defender, namely another “military
officer”, or one could secure an attorney.

Although “the Accused may also retain
the services of a civilian attorney of the Accused’s own choosing…at no
expense to the United States Government”, this would only be possible
once it “has been determined” that the civilian attorney is “eligible
for access to information classified at the level of SECRET or higher…”

In other words, to get any kind of
impartial and efficient legal representation in Mr.Rumsfeld’s court,
your attorney has to be cleared by the Pentagon.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.

About Me

ROLAND SAN JUAN was a researcher, management consultant, inventor, a part time radio broadcaster and a publishing director. He died last November 25, 2008 after suffering a stroke. His staff will continue his unfinished work to inform the world of the untold truths. Please read Erick San Juan's articles at: ericksanjuan.blogspot.com This blog is dedicated to the late Max Soliven, a FILIPINO PATRIOT.
DISCLAIMER - We do not own or claim any rights to the articles presented in this blog. They are for information and reference only for whatever it's worth. They are copyrighted to their rightful owners.
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